Iniaes

In health and science

The Trump administration is moving to make testosterone easier to prescribe, reopening a long-running debate over who benefits from the hormone and who gets put at risk. Testosterone can affect sex drive, mood, and other health markers, so this is one of those medical policy questions that can sound simple right up until the side effects show up.

Merck also says the FDA has approved Lipfendra, a daily cholesterol pill that can be used with statins or as an alternative for people with high LDL. The company says it gives doctors another option for patients who do not tolerate statins well or need more cholesterol reduction.

Researchers meanwhile say plug-in hybrids only save fuel when owners actually charge them. In the Empa study, drivers who skip charging can end up using more fuel than they would in a regular gas car, which is a fairly expensive way to discover that the plug-in part matters.

In tech and AI

Researchers from the University of Tokyo and the Max Planck Institute for Informatics say they have developed a deepfake detection method that looks at facial movement rather than visual artifacts. In tests, they say it identified manipulated video with more than 95 percent average accuracy, including fakes that fooled other systems.

xAI is suing a South Carolina man in federal court in Texas, accusing him of using Grok to create child sexual abuse material. The company says it violated its terms of service, and the case appears to be one of the first by an AI company against a user over this kind of alleged abuse.

In U.S. politics

A new Detroit News and WDIV-TV poll has Rep. Haley Stevens ahead of Abdul El-Sayed by about 7 points in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary. The survey has Stevens at 48.2 percent, compared with 41.4 percent for El-Sayed, in the race to replace Sen. Gary Peters.

Separately, sources say Trump’s longtime teleprompter operator may have made tens of thousands of dollars betting on the contents of Trump’s speeches. The reporting suggests a very odd little ecosystem around the man who turns off-script improvisation into a business model.

In public safety

Police in Atlantic County, New Jersey, are investigating a fatal crash in Egg Harbor Township that involved a box truck and left one man dead.

In Philadelphia, police say a man was killed in a hit-and-run on the eastbound Schuylkill Expressway and are asking for help identifying both the victim and the vehicle involved.

In the Middle East

Reuters reports that Iranian officials have urged Yemen’s Houthis to threaten Red Sea shipping if the United States strikes Iran’s energy sites. The report cites two senior Iranian sources and one regional source familiar with the discussions.

Verified eyewitness video also shows multiple aerial interceptions over Erbil, Iraq, as air defenses responded to drones overhead.

In weather and infrastructure

NOAA is investigating after its GOES-19 weather satellite went offline and remained stuck in safe mode. The satellite, launched in 2024, helps track weather and severe storms across the Western Hemisphere, though NOAA says the older GOES-16 satellite remains available as backup.

In Britain

The government plans to raise fixed penalties for littering to as much as £750 and increase fly-tipping fines to £5,000, with the tougher rules set to begin this summer. Councils would also get stronger powers to crack down on rogue waste operators and remove licences from convicted fly-tippers. A rare case of the paperwork and the problem moving in the same direction.

In the Middle East

In Tyre, Lebanese resident Hussein Saleh said an Israeli airstrike killed his wife and only child, leaving his family destroyed in a single attack. Separately, overnight settler attacks in the occupied West Bank set farmland on fire in Masafer Yatta and burned vehicles near Tulkarem, as Palestinians worked through the night to put out the blazes.

In U.S. emergencies

In northeastern Minnesota, wildfires have forced evacuations from the Boundary Waters area, with officials saying about 90 percent of residents and visitors had been moved out by Wednesday. At least 17 fires were burning in the Superior National Forest, crews carried out air rescues for stranded campers, and smoke from Minnesota and Canada has spread unhealthy air across much of the Midwest and Northeast.

In San Francisco Bay, the Coast Guard has suspended its search for three people still missing after a 49-foot cabin cruiser capsized near Alcatraz during a family memorial outing. One person died and 16 were rescued after the boat lost stability and sank, and investigators are still trying to locate the vessel and determine what happened.

In U.S. politics

Republican Representative Mike Collins, running for Senate in Georgia, is facing fresh scrutiny after a report linked him through family connections to a white nationalist influencer. Meanwhile, the Democratic National Committee reportedly asked members of its leadership to sign non-disclosure agreements before a meeting on party finances, a sign that the money problems are starting to come with extra locks on the door.

In Europe and business

EU foreign ministers say China is a long-term strategic challenge, warning that Beijing poses risks to the bloc’s economy and security and that China and Russia share ambitions to assert regional dominance.

SpaceX shares fell to $132.15, dropping below the company’s $135 IPO price after an early surge and a sustained slide. Even space companies have to answer to gravity.

In sports

Argentina beat England 2-1 in a dramatic World Cup semifinal in Atlanta and moved on to face Spain in the final. Tens of thousands celebrated in Buenos Aires, while England manager Thomas Tuchel said his side became too passive after taking the lead.

In tech and privacy

Meta’s chief technology officer, Andrew Bosworth, told staff he wanted to sue leakers, then audio from the same meeting leaked within days. Separately, a digital rights expert is warning that the EU’s proposed Chat Control law could amount to mass surveillance. The critic says the plan treats everyone as a suspect and argues for targeted scanning instead of blanket monitoring.

In the Middle East and Asia

Iranian military bases were hit after the United States launched a new wave of strikes, with explosions reported across Iran overnight. Nearby Gulf states were also reporting attacks as the situation escalated.

The United Nations says more than 500 people are feared dead after two reported migrant shipwrecks off Myanmar. The boats are believed to have carried mostly Rohingya passengers and to have left Myanmar in late June.

In the UK

Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to use his final visit to Kyiv to tell President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that British support for Ukraine will continue after he leaves office. He is also expected to say Ukraine’s resistance has helped preserve Europe’s security.

British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant has been taken into public ownership under new government powers, in a move aimed at protecting a key UK supply chain.

The government has reversed course on Dartmoor ponies, saying they will stay protected at current levels and will be removed from stocking calculations. Defra says the change avoids forcing farmers to choose between keeping ponies and maintaining sheep or cattle numbers.

In U.S. news

The New York Times is trying to quash subpoenas aimed at four of its journalists after reporting on risks tied to President Trump’s Air Force One gift from Qatar, which has now entered service. The paper says the government is targeting reporters over their coverage, a familiar and worrying move for anyone who still likes press freedom in theory as well as practice.

In Philadelphia, the Trump administration has replaced a slavery-focused exhibit at George Washington’s home with a new version historians say is not historically accurate. Also in the city, a child was hospitalized after being rescued from a house fire in West Philadelphia, and separate health alerts warn that wildfire smoke and extreme heat are combining to make the Delaware Valley air hazardous.

And in Florida, the Navy has opened a probe after a Blue Angels jet flew unusually low over Pensacola Beach, kicking up sand, scattering chairs, and collapsing canopies during a morning event.

In tech and security

A researcher locked in a dispute with Microsoft has released a ninth Windows zero-day, called LegacyHive, while trying to limit public misuse. The flaw is a local privilege escalation bug that uses a profile-loading race condition to reach another user’s registry hive, which is exactly the kind of sentence that makes sysadmins reach for coffee.

Separately, Thales says companies that are strongest on AI security are also better prepared for quantum threats, with data visibility, governance, encryption, and crypto agility doing most of the heavy lifting. Cribl is also buying CardinalOps to expand MITRE ATT&CK detection coverage and push behavioral detections closer to the telemetry pipeline.

In health and science

Researchers say the keto diet may suppress tumors in one part of the body while accelerating them in another. The study adds another layer of caution around treating diet trends as if they were one-size-fits-all medicine.

In the Middle East

The U.S. says it disabled an unladen oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz with Hellfire missiles after the ship ignored repeated warnings and headed toward Kharg Island. The strike came as attacks on Tehran continued for a fifth day, raising the risk that a regional conflict could widen further.

Rights and accountability

In South Korea, international adoptees are pressing for accountability over a system the government has already acknowledged was wrong. They are not asking for a sentimental reunion; they are asking for justice.

Australia is moving toward tougher modern slavery rules, with large companies potentially facing fines and criminal charges if they fail to take reasonable steps to prevent abuse in their operations and supply chains. The government still has to define the penalties and what counts as reasonable steps, which is often where the serious work starts.

Around the world

A new Pew survey found that in 25 of 36 countries and territories, more people now view China favorably than the United States. The shift showed up even in Canada and Mexico, and Pew linked part of it to tensions between the Trump administration and U.S. allies, a diplomatic strategy that keeps producing measurable results.

In the Middle East

President Trump said Iran has released a U.S. citizen he described as wrongfully detained, calling it a gesture of goodwill after recent tensions. At the same time, the United States carried out fresh strikes on Iranian missile and coastal defense sites after reinstating a naval blockade, and Tehran said it may try to disrupt more regional energy exports in response. That is the kind of exchange where everyone insists they want calm, while making sure nobody can mistake the signal.

In Washington

The House rejected a proposal to cut military aid to Israel, even though more than 100 Democrats supported it. Separately, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he is independent from Trump, while the hearing also drifted into questions about the Epstein files. The Justice Department, meanwhile, has refused New Mexico’s request for those records, which the state says are needed for its investigation into alleged abuse at Epstein’s ranch.

In sports

Argentina beat England 2-1 to reach the men’s World Cup final, where it will face Spain on Sunday. The match carried the usual sporting weight, plus the extra baggage of Falklands politics, with Argentina’s vice president posting invasion footage and players later seen with a political banner after the game. FIFA may not have been thrilled, though it does tend to discover its principles most reliably after the final whistle.

In U.S. politics and government

Attorney General nominee said the department made redaction mistakes in the Epstein files, but insisted dozens of lawyers were available to fix them quickly. Separately, Treasury unveiled and the Mint began producing a Trump $1 coin for America’s 250th anniversary, a legal-tender tribute to a living president.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is warning reporters not to amplify President Trump’s election claims ahead of his Thursday speech, saying outlets should avoid helping spread falsehoods about the vote.

In crime and security

A Canadian woman, Kaitlyn E. Tracey, is being held at a federal immigration facility after police said she struck a teenage girl on a New Jersey boardwalk. What started as a dispute over the girl’s “Trump” and “ICE” shirt has become both a criminal case and a deportation proceeding.

In South Korea, police say a man in his 20s has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after allegedly traveling from Seoul to Busan and stabbing a stock-investment YouTuber multiple times. Investigators say the attack may be tied to investment losses.

Police in south London have charged a 14-year-old boy in connection with an alleged extreme-right terrorism plot targeting two mosques. Officers say no other suspects are being sought.

In business and labor

The U.S. labor market is still adding jobs and unemployment has eased to 4.2%, but nearly two million Americans have now been out of work for at least 27 weeks. Long-term unemployed workers made up 27.3% of all unemployed people in June, up four points from a year earlier.

PayPal shares jumped after reports that Stripe and Advent had offered about $53 billion to buy the company, only for Michael Burry to dismiss the price as too low.

In science and technology

Lawrence Livermore researchers say physics-informed machine learning is helping tackle the complexity of battery design for grid-scale energy storage. The work is aimed at better performance and stronger energy resilience.

Researchers also say human-machine learning has improved noninvasive brain-computer control for new users, potentially widening access beyond implanted systems, which remain expensive and surgically risky.

In the Middle East

Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least a dozen people, including police officers. The Israeli military said some of the officers were Hamas militants, but offered no evidence.

Separate reporting says Gaza’s health care system is collapsing under Israeli pressure, leaving many Palestinians with serious conditions in increasingly dire shape. In Iran, U.S. strikes hit an army barracks and killed at least seven troops, while officials said more than 260 people were wounded across the country. The Revolutionary Guard has taken the lead in the response, with Tehran leaning hard into that posture.

In U.S. politics and justice

President Trump is pushing ICE to resume traffic stops even after the agency paused the practice following deadly shootings in Texas and Maine. The tactic has been controversial for obvious reasons.

At Todd Blanche’s confirmation hearing, Republican Senator John Cornyn pressed him over a deal that would give Trump, his family, and his businesses broad protection from audits. Blanche also drew attention for briefly saying, “I’m his lawyer,” before correcting himself.

In weather and public safety

Heavy rain continues across South Texas, and a tornado was reported in San Antonio. In Kerr County, where catastrophic flooding last year killed more than 100 people, officials say they are still in contact with summer camps that could be at risk.

In Orlando, Javier Rosado Martinez was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole for killing 93-year-old Dolores Padilla-Marrero in her assisted-living apartment in 2022. Prosecutors said he strangled and beat her, and investigators pointed to video, DNA, and keys found when he was arrested.

In global shipping and war

Iran is signaling it could use its Houthi allies to threaten the Bab el-Mandeb strait, widening the conflict beyond the Gulf and putting another major shipping route at risk. Pressure is rising as U.S. strikes inside Iran deepen and Houthi attacks escalate, with energy supplies and global trade once again stuck in the middle.

Ukraine says it struck Russian vessels in the Sea of Azov, disrupting traffic through the Kerch Strait and slowing shipping to a trickle. Kyiv says more than 100 vessels have been hit in recent days, adding to pressure on Russia’s economy as fuel shortages deepen.

In U.S. immigration enforcement

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has told agents nationwide to temporarily suspend most routine vehicle stops after two fatal shootings involving officers in Texas and Maine. Senior ICE officials are also warning that Trump’s arrest quotas are creating chaos in the field, with punishing daily targets and rising risk on the streets.

In the U.S. Senate

A bill to make daylight saving time permanent is expected to run into trouble in the Senate after passing the House. Senator Tom Cotton and other opponents have raised concerns about children commuting in the dark and workers starting before sunrise.

In the UK

Scottish church leaders are warning that historic buildings could suffer after a UK-wide VAT relief scheme for listed church repairs ended. The Scottish Government says it is considering options, but ministers say budget limits make a replacement difficult, and congregations fear community money will have to be diverted just to keep roofs and stonework intact.

In local crime

Police in Philadelphia say two men were exchanging information after a crash on Roosevelt Boulevard in the Crescentville neighborhood when gunfire broke out moments later. One man was shot.

In Venezuela

Venezuela’s interim government says formal talks with the opposition are set to begin, with the aim of strengthening democracy and with U.S. backing for a transition. Nobel laureate María Corina Machado will not lead the negotiations over new elections, despite earlier expectations.

In sports

French media reacted sharply after France’s World Cup semi-final loss to Spain, with some outlets calling it a collective failure and others describing the defeat as the end of the team’s American dream. Fans had hoped for a final, but the mood turned flat fast.

In the Middle East

The war around Iran kept widening. The U.S. and Iran traded strikes overnight, and President Trump raised the stakes further by threatening attacks on civilian infrastructure. Axios also reports he held a Situation Room meeting to discuss a possible broader offensive aimed at forcing Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and accept his nuclear terms.

There is also a separate push on the diplomacy side, with Jared Kushner appearing at a high-level conference on Palestine tied to the EU’s Gaza plan. The region is offering the usual mix of war, pressure, and peace meetings that arrive just in time to be ignored by the artillery.

In U.S. news

Security for the Iraqi prime minister’s visit to Washington shut down flights at Ronald Reagan National Airport for several hours on Tuesday, triggering more than 100 cancellations and a long chain of delays.

On Capitol Hill, a key defense funding vote collapsed as lawmakers tried to curb the White House’s room to maneuver while the regional situation keeps deteriorating. That leaves a must-pass bill stuck, which is a very congressional way to say “please hold, crisis ongoing.”

In the UK

The government is urging households to prepare for cyberattacks, severe weather, and infrastructure failures that could affect banking, communications, power, and transport. It is the kind of briefing that sounds less like routine advice and more like someone finally read the risk register.

Separately, ministers are proposing a midnight social media curfew for older teenagers, with an opt-out option, and want addictive features such as autoplay and infinite scroll switched off. Thames Water, meanwhile, reported a return to profit after raising bills, even as its debt grew, a neat reminder that accounting and reality are not always on speaking terms.

Health and consumer news

Doctors are warning that washing produce will not stop Cyclospora if fruits and vegetables are contaminated. The parasite has sickened nearly 7,000 people across 34 states, and the case count is still rising.

In India, the rollout of fuel blended with 20 percent ethanol is drawing backlash from vehicle owners, who say the change was pushed through too quickly and without enough clarity on the impact.

In the Middle East

The fighting around Iran is widening. U.S. Central Command says it carried out another round of strikes late Tuesday on dozens of military targets near the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s coastal region, after the U.S. resumed a naval blockade with more than 20 Navy warships involved.

President Trump said the U.S. will hit Iran very hard and that the campaign will expand across its infrastructure. Separately, a report says Iranian authorities used flaws in global mobile networks, including SS7 and ad-tech tracking tools, to locate U.S. military personnel in Iraq, Bahrain, and elsewhere before and during the conflict.

Trump also hosted Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi at the White House, where the two sides said they want deeper economic ties. A rare moment of diplomacy, even if the backdrop is still mostly missiles.

In U.S. politics

Trump is planning a primetime address on Thursday focused on election security. He says the speech will use reexamined government files to argue that the country’s voting systems have vulnerabilities, though he has not offered specifics yet.

Meanwhile, nearly three-quarters of Americans say there is too much money in politics, just as the U.S. heads toward another cycle of extremely expensive elections. Polls do occasionally manage to say the quiet part out loud.

In Europe

Britain and the European Union have signed a new treaty setting Gibraltar’s post-Brexit relationship with the bloc. The border gates with Spain were left open after the deal, allowing free crossings for the first time, while checks are expected at the airport by Spanish and Gibraltarian officers. Officials called it a historic step that should make daily life a little less bureaucratic.

In environment

The Great Barrier Reef is still being hammered by poor water quality, with sediment, fertiliser, and pesticide runoff damaging corals and seagrass. UNESCO has again flagged the problem, and a new Queensland and federal plan is being criticized as underfunded and vague. Australia has missed previous pollution targets, and the latest assessment says the reef’s long-term outlook remains very poor.

In U.S. news

A 20-year-old British man was shot dead in Philadelphia last Wednesday, and police have charged 75-year-old George Barr with murder and related offenses. Authorities say the shooting followed a commotion inside the home. The Department of Homeland Security says the victim had entered the U.S. illegally and was denied ESTA over alleged ties to a fraud group.

Separately, one person died and two others were missing after a pontoon boat carrying 19 people capsized near Alcatraz on Tuesday afternoon. Rescue crews were still searching the water after the vessel overturned about 600 yards offshore.